Monthly Archives: June 2012

Warner to Mount 'Liberty,' Show of Firsts

Posted: June 5, 2012 at 1:12 pm

By RICKY CAMPBELL Register Citizen Staff

TORRINGTON Liberty, an upcoming musical at the Warner Theatre premiering on June 30, is a production of firsts and everyone involved isnt just content with that, but theyre rather excited.

Liberty will showcase the story of an immigrant girl coming from Paris, gathering outside influences ideals of what liberty is to them, and integrating their multiple thoughts into her own development. Its the first time the musical will see the light of day in its entirety, the first time its lead actress will be the focal point in her young career and its the first time Liberty will have the opportunity to push its cast and crew to their ultimate goal: a New York City stage.

On Thursday, cast and crew members of Liberty introduced themselves to Warner staffers, city officials and the public. After explaining the musicals premise, fine details and an opening, teasing number from its lead actress, Liberty cast members hit the stage for their first weekend of rehearsals.

The crew will spend their Thursdays through Saturdays leading up to the June 30 world premiere on the Torrington Main Street theatres stage, practicing their lines and developing their characters. When the show leaves the Warner Theatre after its final performance on July 12, the production, aiming for brighter lights and bigger venues, can look to Torrington as its jumping off point.

For some, it could be the initial catapult to a career under the lights.

For a first gig, this isnt too shabby, lead actress Madeline Brewer said with a smile Thursday following the warm welcome. Brewer, 20, graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York a week ago. Outside of her hometown theater in Pitman, New Jersey, Brewer said shes never landed the lead role.

On June 30, 2012, that will change for Brewer as she becomes the first actress to ever don the copper-turned-green wardrobe of Liberty an immigrant girl from France trying to make a life in 19th century America.

Liberty will hit the stage for the first time, creating a new draw, officials believe, for the different demographics of show-goers.

Youre building a relationship here and that relationship is with the Warner family, Warner Theatre Executive Director John Bonanni said to the group. When you leave, youre going to find yourself missing this place.

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LIBERTY Dental Plan Introduces New Executive for Government Programs

Posted: at 1:12 pm

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

LIBERTY Dental Plan (LIBERTY) is pleased to announced that Dave Meadows, a healthcare industry veteran, is joining the companys operations as Senior Vice President of Government Programs.

We are excited and honored to welcome Dave to our executive management, said Amir Neshat, CEO and founder of the Irvine-based dental benefits administrator. As LIBERTY continues to expand its business within the market of government sponsored plan we anticipate Daves knowledge and experience will be invaluable to our successfully delivering the highest quality of dental benefits to our members in government sponsored programs.

With over 19 years of specialized expertise in state health programs, Meadows will manage operations out of the greater Sacramento area by providing his experienced input on facilitating and developing public plans that will best serve populations for California and LIBERTYS national partners. His extensive career includes a term as Vice President of State Health Programs for Health Net, and time spent working directly for the California State Department as a Supervising Examiner responsible for financial regulation of contracting Health Care Service Plans. Meadows presently serves as a Board Member for the California Association of Dental Plans (CADP) and the California Department of Managed Health Cares Financial Solvency Standards Board.

Im thrilled to be joining such a dynamic company that has demonstrated its leadership in providing dental coverage to the government programs sector, said Meadows. Im excited about the opportunity we have to work on innovative, cost effective ways to continually improve the access and availability government program beneficiaries have to quality dental care.

About LIBERTY Dental Plan

LIBERTY Dental Plan specializes in commercial and government sponsored dental programs, providing services to managed care organizations, state governments, labor unions, large group employers, municipalities, and individuals. With a vast majority of its membership enrolled in government sponsored programs, LIBERTY is recognized as a specialist in administering dental care for Medicaid, SCHIP and Medicare beneficiaries. LIBERTY has a proven record of successfully increasing the utilization of quality dental care for multiple programs, ensuring that a larger portion of premiums are appropriated directly to care.

LIBERTY Dental Plan is also recognized as an industry leader in the area of Dental Disease Management. A member of The Care Continuum Alliance (carecontinuum.org), LIBERTY shares their commitment to promote high quality standards for and definitions of key components of wellness, disease, case management where appropriate, and care coordination programs as well as support services and materials.

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American Liberty Petroleum Corp. Provides Progress Update for Nevada-Based Cortez Operation

Posted: at 1:12 pm

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

American Liberty Petroleum Corp. (OTCBB: OREO) (herein after "American Liberty" and/or "the Company") is pleased to provide a summary of the Company's recent progress on the Cortez Operation. The operation is located on the 3,840-acre Cortez lease in Gabbs Valley, Nye County, Nevada, and includes two wells: Cobble Cuesta 1-12 and Paradise 2-12.

In early May 2012, work resumed on the Paradise 2-12 well, including a fluid level test that indicated a 1920' fluid column in the well bore above the pump. Following the application of hot water and a new proprietary chemical formula treatment, the well produced additional fluid consisting of an oil/water mix. In total, approximately 29 barrels of crude was shipped to Foreland's Eagle Springs Refinery in neighboring White Pine County, representing the Company's second sale to Foreland. The BLM was also notified of the sale in order that the Company might secure "held by production" status on the Cortez lease.

The Company has continued to work with oil and gas consulting services firm Netherland, Sewell & Associates Inc. ("NSAI") to gather information toward determining next steps in the development of the Cortez operation. In particular, the Company is currently considering options that include:

1) Deepening the Cobble Cuesta 1-12 well

2) Deepening the Paradise 2-12 well

3) Drilling a new well based on information gained to date

4) Performing more seismic surveying prior to further exploration activities

NSAI is assisting the Company's assessment of all possible options by reviewing and evaluating the geological information currently available, and is providing American Liberty with their recommendations of the technical alternatives associated with each of the options, taking care to point out both the merits and potential challenges of each.

As of May 29, 2012, the Company had received an Authority For Expenditure (AFE) to re-enter the Cobble Cuesta 1-12 well, and an AFE to drill a new well in the Cortez lease. The AFEs act as budgetary documents that list the estimated expenses associated with the development activity in question: in the case of the well re-entry, an oil/gas well/re-enter with intermediate casing at 6000' and production casing at 8500', including perforate casing and frac; in the case of the new well, an oil/gas well with surface casing at 850', intermediate casing at 6000', and production casing at 8500', including perforate casing and frac.

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American Liberty Petroleum Corp. Provides Progress Update for Nevada-Based Cortez Operation

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Office talk not always free speech

Posted: at 1:10 pm

Employers often have to deal with disgruntled employees who regularly complain about their supervisor or others and about business issues.

In a recent case that arose within the context of state employment, an employee regularly complained about his supervisor and issued a memorandum to a superior official requesting that the department in which he worked be transferred out of the jurisdiction of that supervisor.

This memorandum proved to be the last straw. The employee was called in and given the option of resigning or being terminated. The employee elected to resign and later filed suit claiming that his free speech rights had been violated, that he was a whistle-blower under the Indiana statute and that he was wrongfully discharged under Indiana common law.

On the free speech guarantee, despite the fact the individual was a state employee, the court could not agree that his speech was protected under Article I, Section 9, of the Indiana Constitution simply because it was addressed to the state. The employee was clearly acting within the scope of his employment because he requested an improvement in his employment situation. This is a private interest. So free speech was not at issue.

On the whistle-blower issue, the employee did not exhaust the internal administrative remedies and chose to resign rather than be terminated. Hence, no claim.

The court reaffirmed that Indiana follows the doctrine of employment at-will under which employment may be terminated by either party at-will, with or without reason. None of the three exceptions applied in this case.

There was no "adequate independent consideration" for employment, no public policy exception existed and no promise had been made on which the employee relied to his detriment to impute an employment contract.

This case not only reaffirms Indiana's employment at-will doctrine but it also points out that even in public employment, an employee does not necessarily have a free speech right to criticize a supervisor or the way the department is organized solely for personal interests.

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Office talk not always free speech

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Supreme Court rules for Secret Service in Cheney free speech case

Posted: at 1:10 pm

WASHINGTON -- The US Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that two Secret Service agents are immune from a lawsuit filed by a Colorado man they arrested after he accosted then-Vice President Dick Cheney.

The high court held the agents were entitled to "qualified immunity" because it was not "clearly established" that they were violating Steven Howards' free speech rights when they took him into custody.

"This Court has never recognized a First Amendment right to be free from a retaliatory arrest that is supported by probable cause; nor was such a right otherwise clearly established at the time of Howards' arrest," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court's opinion.

Secret Service agents Gus Reichle and Dan Doyle arrested Howards after he confronted Cheney at a 2006 appearance at a Colorado shopping mall.

Agents began monitoring Howards after Doyle observed him talking on his cellphone saying, "I'm going to ask [the Vice President] how many kids he's killed today."

Howards then entered a line to meet Cheney, where he told him that his "policies in Iraq are disgusting." Cheney simply thanked Howards, but Howards touched the Vice President on the shoulder as he moved to meet more people in the crowd.

After Howards walked away, he was stopped by Reichele. Howards denied touching Cheney, which prompted his arrest.

Colorado authorities charged Howards with harassment, but the charge was eventually dropped.

Howards subsequently sued Reichle and Doyle.

But in a victory for the Obama administration, the high court reversed the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and threw out the lawsuit Monday by ruling that the agents had immunity.

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Freedom of Press in Moldova still a matter of concern

Posted: June 4, 2012 at 8:16 am

The media market of the Republic of Moldova is quite rich, although there are some issues regarding it. The most difficult part can be found in Moldovas separatist region of Transnistria which does not administrate the zone.

The case of Ernest Vardanean is the most resonant incident which deals with freedom of press. Journalist Vardanean was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charge of spying for Moldova. He was pardoned one year later by the so-called president of Transnistria, at that time Igor Smirnov. Ernest Vardanean was in prison since April 2010.

The worst incidents the Moldovan media experienced took place during the violent riots of April 2009, when thousands of people took to the streets contesting the result of the elections. The protesters, mainly teenagers, organized the protest on the internet. When the number of demonstrators increased significantly, the leadership shut down the main social networks, such as FaceBook, Twitter, Odnoklassniki (a popular Russian social network).

During the protests, which turned violent, several bloggers were beaten up, local and foreign journalists detained and the transmission of some opposition TV channels has been cut off. Their websites were suspended and the access to internet was restricted in some places.

Moldovas well known Pro TV channel had their broadcasting cut off and the website unavailable, because it was an important criticizer of the leadership. They had to switch their updates on the website of Pro TV Bucharest (Romania) during the demonstrations.

Other media outlets, such as UNIMEDIA news portal launched an English version of the website providing live updates from the ground in two languages (Romanian and English). They were also supposed to change the domain because the previous version was temporarily blocked by the Security Service of Moldova.

International correspondents from AP, AFP, and Reuters were barred from entering the country, while others were expelled from Moldova.

According to Reporters without Borders, Moldova ranks the 53rd level out of 179 in the latest worldwide index on freedom of press. Moldova scored 3 points and a status of partly free press for 2011 from Freedom House.

The United Nations Mission to Moldova believes that the country still deals with serious issues, such as threats to journalists for reporting fairly, the freedom of the media to broadcast on difficult thematic issues is violated, and sometimes there is no respect for diversity of opinion, including as a regulatory issue.

We have been supporting a number of efforts in the area of freedom of the media, such as expert international law advice in the matter of a ban on Moldova 1 broadcasting a film on LGBT rights, as well as support for the reform of the public broadcaster TeleRadio Moldova, Claude Cahn, the UN Human Rights Advisor told Moldova.ORG.

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Liberty 87, Fever 72

Posted: at 8:16 am

UpdatedJun 3, 2012 9:56 PM ET

The New York Liberty were fired up after a 23-point loss at Indiana the previous night gave them the longest winless start in franchise history.

Cappie Pondexter scored 25 points to lead the Liberty to an 87-72 victory over the Fever on Sunday night. Essence Carson had 16 points, Plenette Pierson added 14, Leilani Mitchell 13 and Kia Vaughn 10 for New York (1-5).

''We were extra motivated, everybody was angry,'' Pondexter said. ''We finally got a win under our belt. ... We're happy about it. Winning changes everything.''

The Liberty, who shot 44 percent (31 for 70), led by double digits from late in the second quarter until the Fever made a run down the stretch in the fourth.

After Vaughn's jumper with 6:20 to go put the Liberty ahead 75-58, matching its largest lead of the game, the Fever used a 12-2 run to pull within seven with 3:20 to go.

However, Pondexter scored nine points as the Liberty outscored the Fever 12-6 the rest of the way to seal the victory.

''I knew we weren't going to lose,'' Pondexter said. ''We made a lot of mistakes in our previous five games, where we knew we had the game and then lost it down the stretch. ... But today we stuck together. I think that's a real positive. ... I think any (opposing) team would have lost tonight.''

New York was 9 for 19 (47 percent) from beyond the arc and finished with 20 assists and 12 steals. After getting outscored by an average of 17.4 points in their first five games, the Liberty finished with their highest total of the season.

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Liberty 87, Fever 72

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Girls victimized by sex trafficking find healing at Freedom Place

Posted: June 3, 2012 at 4:18 am

Kelly Armstrong beamed during her daughter's kindergarten graduation, celebrating the finale to her first year of elementary school.

But in the back of her mind, she was thinking about another young girl, a teenager rescued by law enforcement officials during a child pornography bust, who might be able to have a new beginning.

Armstrong, the executive director of Freedom Place, Texas' first and only safe house for domestic victims of sex trafficking, had been trading messages and phone calls with officials from the Texas Attorney General's Office all afternoon about the girl. Officials were offering her a safe place to stay, a place where she could get counseling.

"We knew we needed to act quickly," she said.

That evening, as she watched her daughter, Armstrong continued to check her cell phone, anxiously waiting to hear from authorities and hoping that teen would agree to come to Freedom Place.

Until last week, there was no place in Houston - or anywhere in Texas - dedicated to helping domestic trafficking victims. Often the options for the girls were incarceration in a juvenile facility, treatment programs that didn't meet their needs, or being placed back into the same unstable homes that may have led to them the streets in the first place, authorities said.

Even more difficult, many of the girls don't feel that they are victims, making them vulnerable to falling back into familiar patterns with abusers, said Associate Harris County Juvenile judge Angela Ellis.

"What we know is that they will return to the system if we don't offer them therapeutic services," Ellis said. She runs a "girls court," designed specifically for young girls who are sex-trafficking victims, offering them intensive supervision and therapeutic services as an alternative to placing them in detention facilities. The court has already referred three girls to Freedom Place, including one who became the program's first arrival.

"Telling someone they are a victim and then being able to do nothing but place them in a lock-down facility is not something we wanted," Ellis said. "So it's a big day."

6 horses and 2 dogs

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Liberty takeover of Sirius could cost Karmazin CEO job

Posted: at 4:18 am

It could be curtains for Karmazin.

John Malones Liberty Media told regulators yesterday it wants to take control of Sirius XM Radio which could put Liberty CEO Greg Maffei in perfect position to run the satellite broadcaster.

That means that Mel Karmazin, the current CEO of Sirius, who famously chafes at being a No. 2, could be headed out the door after more than seven years atop the New York-based company.

Karmazin was the second banana at Viacom but made it clear he didnt like working under chairman Sumner Redstone.

Karmazin, 68, could be tempted to walk after his contract expires Dec. 31 if Liberty is successful in its appeal to the Federal Communications Commission.

Christopher Peterson/BuzzFoto.co

John Malone of Liberty Media is pulling out all the stops in his latest bid to take over Sirius XM, which is run by Mel Karmazin (above), the longtime Gotham-based media boss.

Greg is sick of being a portfolio manager, said a source close to the Liberty Media boss, who oversees a host of companies including Starz, Live Nation, Barnes & Noble and Sirius XM Radio.

Liberty has praised Karmazins management ability and are not seen as aching to push him out but the question is: Will Mel want to stay?

Liberty did not return a call for comment. Sirius declined comment.

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WNBA: Catchings, Fever cruise by winless Liberty

Posted: at 4:18 am

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Tamika Catchings scored 16 points to help the Indiana Fever defeat the New York Liberty 91-68 on Saturday night.

Roneeka Hodges scored 15 points, Jeanette Pohlen added 12 and Katie Douglas had 11 for Indiana (4-0). The Fever made 13 of 26 3-pointers while New York made 5 of 17. The Fever made 22 of 27 free throws and committed just 12 turnovers.

Indiana's reserves outscored New York's 52-18.

Plenette Pierson scored 24 points on 10-for-13 shooting for the Liberty (0-5). Cappie Pondexter, New York's leading scorer, finished with 13 points on 4-for-15 shooting. Pierson and Pondexter were the only Liberty players to score in double figures.

New York's past four losses have all been by double digits, by a combined 82 points. The teams play again Sunday at New York.

Indiana, which entered the game as the No. 2 scoring team in the league, shot 47 percent from the field.

The Fever shot just 6-for-19 from the field in the first quarter but made enough free throws to tie the score at 20 by the end of the period.

Indiana heated up in the second quarter making 10 of its 16 shots to take a 49-36 halftime lead. Catchings scored 14 points in the first half and Hodges scored eight off the bench in the second quarter. The Fever made 6-of-13 three-pointers in the first half.

New York cut Indiana's lead to nine points early in the third quarter before the Fever took control. A three-pointer by Shavonte Zellous pushed Indiana's lead to 60-45 and forced the Liberty to call a timeout.

Catchings disagreed with a foul call, then made contact with an official and was issued a technical foul. New York made all three free throws to cut Indiana's lead to 12.

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